I saw this NYT article yesterday, and I signed up for like 4 of them on Coursera. Unlike the youtube lectures/iTunes U you may be familiar with, they are starting to get these organized into fully interactive classes, with quizzes, tests, homeworks, and a grade. Some of the classes offer certificates of completion signed by the professor.

I signed up for like 4 of these last night, the first one starts in a couple of weeks so I'll give a better impression. However, I have learned iPhone programming solely from the Stanford lectures, and have watched many other lectures in different subjects for enjoyment. This seems to be promising a more formal experience which if it lives up to it, would be amazing.

It looks like a lot of the classes on Coursera are focused on Computer Science, but UPenn has a bunch of health topics, there are some finance classes, at least one history class, a poetry class, and a math class here and there.

There are some intro to computer science/programming which would be good for people wanting to learn to program, and an intro to mathematical thought which is a transition class from high school to college mathematics which looks amazing for anyone with teenage relatives.

That's really cool. I think if you have time this summer, do it, even if you just wanted to learn about something. I see some will even be credited. I just got back from Germany for a previous engagament I can't miss and am going back to Europe in two days and am not sure when I'll be home for good, BUT........ I would sign up for something if I were here.

Lol, Shad's got 1300 - Present covered, no reason to take that class. Honestly dude there are infinite ways to teach history so it really depends on the professor. If you aren't into it off the bat I would quit, but I certainly wouldn't shy away from a history class for the reason you stated.

Troy Loney wrote:Lol, Shad's got 1300 - Present covered, no reason to take that class. Honestly dude there are infinite ways to teach history so it really depends on the professor. If you aren't into it off the bat I would quit, but I certainly wouldn't shy away from a history class for the reason you stated.

haha, well said. I don't know a lot about the Middle Ages actually, so I'm looking forward to it.

I also think you'd get a lot more out of these classes where you have familiarity as opposed to ones where you don't. I'd defintely learn a lot more in that history class than I would in Analytical Physics or something like that where the majority of the class would be over my head.

When I saw that I almost threw up in my mouth. I took a graduate course in Optimization and the math was more hardcore than anything I have ever had, and a very brief introduction to Game Theory was included as a bonus lecture at the end lol. However I just looked at the description of that class and it looks like they are taking all of the math out of it and gearing it towards undergrads. An actual mathematical Game Theory class would be a graduate level pure math class. If you have seen Beautiful Mind, that is the mathematician who invented it.

Last edited by AlexPKeaton on Mon Aug 06, 2012 3:21 pm, edited 1 time in total.

When I saw that I almost threw up in my mouth. I took a graduate course in Optimization and the math was more hardcore than anything I have ever had, and a very brief introduction to Game Theory was included as a bonus lecture at the end lol. However I just looked at the description of that class and it looks like they are taking all of the math out of it and gearing it towards undergrads. An actual mathematical Game Theory class would be a graduate level pure math class. If you have seen Beautiful Mind, that is the mathematician who invented it.

When I saw that I almost threw up in my mouth. I took a graduate course in Optimization and the math was more hardcore than anything I have ever had, and a very brief introduction to Game Theory was included as a bonus lecture at the end lol. However I just looked at the description of that class and it looks like they are taking all of the math out of it and gearing it towards undergrads. An actual mathematical Game Theory class would be a graduate level pure math class. If you have seen Beautiful Mind, that is the mathematician who invented it.

Apparently my previous message wasn't clear enough:

Anyone who fully understands the mathematics behind Game Theory is probably living large from making millions on the stock market haha.